Fragments and Peices
by Vuk Misic
Summary: Calvin York's life is a mess. He can hardly remember his early teen years, his guardians are constantly asking him if he is okay, along with moving around more times than he can count, and he has been to at least eight counsellors within three years. He just wants to be normal, make friends, date someone, join a team,...if only the man he fears would leave him alone. HSAU
1. Paper For Breakfast

Calvin opened his grey eyes, and looked around his room with his one good eye, while the other just looked at the blurry mess that was his room. The corner room sat at the front right corner of the two floored brick house that his cousin and his wife owned. The backyard was spacious, enough that his cousin, Brandon, a Pennsylvania native, had said that it was just the "right size for a party"… Brandon's strange way of saying: "We aren't moving till you go to college, so make friends.", and contained a small inground pool with diving board, a large, sort of dominating deck area, and a fire pit towards the back fence. The front yard was mainly a thirty foot long patch of superbly watered green grass, and a cobble, two car driveway that lead to a similarly made two car garage.

Calvin turned back to his room. The goldish/mustard colored carpet was clear of major debris, mainly clothes and other random objects, meaning that Georgia, Brandon's wife, had cleaned up when he was asleep.

He hoped that she hadn't seen him in a nightmare…

He sat up in his full sized bed, the black blanket thrown to the side, as he pulled himself off the mattress, and stood up, stretching his contracted and tired muscles, letting out a massive yawn in the process. Groggily and evidently half asleep, he walked, well more like waddled, over to his closet, from which he retrieved a pair of tan chinos from a hangar, waddled over to the dresser caddy cornered in the corner opposite his also caddy cornered bed, and retrieved a fresh pair of boxers, and a t-shirt from their respective drawers. Now more alert and awake, he stuck his head out into the grey carpeted hallway that ran the length of the house, before ending in a staircase that lead into the living room downstairs. Across the hall was the linen closet, where he retrieved a fresh towel, before walking down the homey hall towards the bathroom, two doors down.

He pushed his head against the door, listening.

No humming or sound came from the bathroom, meaning that it was unoccupied.

He pushed open the door, stripped out of his pyjamas; consisting of a pair of boxers and a ragged old tee, and climbed into the shower. He silently swore at himself when he realized he forgot to let the water warm up, and would have to suffer a cold shower.

Whatever. Twisting the chrome shower handle over to where it let out water, he showered as the cold/lukewarm water ran down his body, wiping off the sweat and grime from last night, and trying to rinse away the nightmares that had plagued him since he was a pre-teen.

He could not for the life of him, remember what had caused them.

Finishing, he dried off himself, and slipped into the outfit he had brought with him to the bathroom, before doing his daily routine. He shaved quickly, spiked his brown hair into his usual mini faux hawk, and brushed his teeth till they were perfectly whitened to his liking.

Finally, he could face the day, or maybe just breakfast.

He slipped on some socks, and cautiously ran down the carpeted stairs, trying not to slip as many a times someone in this house had done before. It had been a good laugh, when Georgia was carrying a overloaded laundry basket up to the linen closet, slipped, and her perfectly folded towels went flying. The explicits that came from her mouth were a moment that can only be experienced once in a man's lifetime.

The living room was empty, though the sounds of cooking and cousin Brandon singing in french alerted him to the man's presence. Calvin sulked, knowing that Brandon would pester and probe him about how he was feeling, and how he slept, and probably remind him that he had yet another therapy session today.

God how he hated the therapy.

But he did it because it made Brandon and Georgia a bit happier. For some reason, whenever the two of them looked at him, their eyes filled with that of pity, almost as if he was some poor helpless animal caught in a trap. Like he had been through such trauma, he couldn't live on his own.

He was sick of it.

Entering the wide open kitchen, he caught a glimpse of something he would desperately be trying to wash from the insides of his eyes: his cousin Brandon, cooking something like a pancake on drugs, in a pick 'kiss the chef' cooking apron, singing a song in french.

"Great, this is just one image that will be seared into my brain for the rest of my life." Calvin called, letting the cook know he had company.

"Good morning cousin. How are you feeling?" Brandon replied without turning around, or breaking concentration on his 'meal'. "I'm making crepes."

We're having paper ribbons for breakfast?" Calvin sighed.

"No, crepes, a very delicious french breakfast, it's like those enchiladas we had at that Mexican place a few months ago, just not with all the cheese, and with these, you can put almost anything in them."

"Where's Georgia, doesn't she want some of these magical french pancakes.?"

"She went to work, called into the OR earlier than we'd have liked, and they are not pancakes."

Calvin often wondered what drove Brandon to be this weird at times. He could understand the crepes and french singing, the dude was a high school French teacher, not to mention _his_ French teacher, but the apron and the happy go lucky attitude was new, and quite frankly, deranged in Calvin's mind.

"Can I just get a cup of coffee and go to school?" Calvin asked. Brandon was not always the best cook, and when he tried making something new, it took along time, multiple tries, and many more explicits, before they possessed a bearable amount of radiation, as to be ingested into the human body, with little to no adverse side effects.

"No, you are going to start your first day at a new, and **permanent** school, so have breakfast, make friends, and maybe get a girlfriend, or boyfriend, if you swing that way, and maybe join a team, so you aren't at home so much."

"Thanks, Brandon, are you trying kill me? If so, by what? Embarrassment? Poisoning at breakfast, hit me with the staff golf cart?"

"No, why would you assume I'd be trying to kill you?" Brandon questioned, serving the now complete crepes onto a glass plate that Calvin had not noticed was already in front of him.

Calvin glanced at the plate.

"What the…?"

"Now, eat." Brandon said, before sitting down across the rectangular table from him and began digging into the crepes on his plate. " They have nutella in them so, eat."

Calvin gave the flat meal a second glance, then looked up at Brandon, who had paused, watching and waiting for Calvin to take a bite. Calvin groaned.

"Are you serious right now?" he whined.

"Don't whine, it's very unbecoming. Now eat." Brandon replied.

Calvin swallowed. Truly, the way he was acting was a bit more paranoid than necessary, but as of late, he couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't safe. He picked up the fork, and cut into the warm crepe, letting the smell of warm nutella fill his nostrils and relieve much of the stress he had that morning. He stabbed the fork into the thin dough, and before the peice fell of, he lifted it into his mouth.

It was warmth and perfection. He chewed, letting out a small moan, which caused Brandon to smile in pride, and swallowed.

"Good, right?" Brandon asked. Calvin grunted in response.

"Hey Calvin?" Brandon began.

Calvin swallowed. "Yeah?"

"How did you sleep last night?"

Calvin stopped chewing, his tone changing to a much sharper and annoyed one. "Fine, why?"

"Its just the counselors told me…"

"To what? Watch me while I sleep, record anything that happens? Treat me like a lab rat? Stop saying there is something wrong with me! I am FINE. So what if I wasn't all that happy in Boise, doesn't mean that I need so much fucking help!"

Calvin breathed. Brando tried to speak up, but Calvin told him off.

"Can we just eat in peace?"

They ate their breakfast in silence, till Brandon yelled that they had to go, as the time for school was approaching fast, and they had to drive there. Brandon ran off upstairs, while Calvin grabbed his one-strap backpack from by the front door, filled with empty school materials, most of which would be filled with doodles and other non-school based creations.

Brandon had yet to get him a sketchbook.

"Come on Brandon, we're going to be late." he mumbled, as his cousin clambered down the stairs, dressed in black jeans, and an untucked white collared shirt, brown boots heavy as he ran towards the door.

"Ready?" Brandon asked, not paying attention to the fact that Calvin was standing there, prepared to take Brandon's car and leave him behind.

"No…." Calvin gestured to himself for reference, " I'm not."

"Dont get smart."

Calvin sighed as the black chevy volt pulled into the school parking lot, into the staff spot reserved for Brandon.

"I know what you're thinking Calvin, this is the last time we are moving. I know we've said that a lot, but this time we are staying till you go off to college. And you are going to college, if not, its tech school or the military. No ifs ands or buts."

"I somehow doubt that." Calvin mumbled, walking into the school before his cousin could say a reply.


	2. The Great Swapping

**David Kearney was currently seated at a circular table somewhere in the massive school library, reading a book on God knows what, waiting for either his friends to arrive so he could have some company before first period, or wait silently and hope that he could avoid his friends till first period. **

**Either one worked.**

**And obviously fate was against him.**

** "****Dave! Hey!" a high pitched voice called from the front of the aisle, directly adjacent to his seated position. He swore silently.**

**It was Connie.**

**Connie sort of ran/sort of walked, over to him, her bag slapping her hip as she moved, her brown ponytail swinging side to side before she grew fed up with it and pulled it over her shoulder.**

** "****Hello Connie." he replied in a monotone voice."What a pleasant surprise" To be honest, David did not want to talk to anyone at this time, especially about ****_him._****, and he knew that the first thing Connie would do would be to ask if he and ****_him _****did anything.**

** "****Bullshit Dave, I know you're happy to see me." Connie replied sitting down across from him. Dear God, why did she have to call him Dave?"**

** "****Please don't call me Dave, not anymore." he asked, trying to hide the displeasure in his voice at the nickname. Connie was taken aback.**

** "****Why? I thought you loved when people called you Dave, sometimes letting them get away with a Davey. What happened? Did something happen? I knew it, something happened, what happened? Tell me!" she grew fervent in her ranting, hoping she could pry her way into getting him to spill what happened over the summer.**

** "****Not telling, why? Cause its none of your business." he replied.**

** "****What's none of my business?" a blonde haired man asked, seating himself next to David. a small smile on his face.**

** "****Oh nothing, Alex, only Dave won't tell me what's made him have such a stick up his ass." Connie replied to Alex's question. "More than usual."**

** "****Can we just drop my life as the topic of this morning? Please? I'm sure there is something far more impressive and/or important than my life." David shielded. Alex laughed a bit, a smooth laugh that rolled over you contagiously, making you think it absolutely necessary to laugh along. **

**By now David was immune to it's possessing effects.**

** "****There is as a matter of fact. A new kid, cousin of the new French teacher me and David have together. I don't know if its a guy or girl, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Alex stated, quite nonchalantly. Connie grinned deviously at David.**

** "****No Connie, no. Don't even think about it." David said, before Connie could suggest anything.**

** "****What? I was just suggesting that you become friends,...preferably one immune to killjoys." Connie replied, mumbling that last part. David scowled at his friend. And right before he could strangle said friend and dump the body, the rest of his friends showed up, each taking a seat around the table.**

**David sighed. **

**It was time for the Great Swapping.**

**Each year, they all got together on the first day to exchange their schedules for the year, in order to find out who had the same classes. Once the grand total of them all were assembled, they began. They each lined up their papers in a grid on the table, and compared, smiling and frowning when they determined their classes. Wash looked at his schedule again, hoping to memorize it.**

**French was first, shared with Alex, his friend Willis, and...Maine.**

**Great, Maine was in his first class. Not that he disliked the guy, but Maine's friend Simon was kind of creepy, and Maine would do whatever Simon told him to, even making Maine hang around with Simon's circle of friends, what Simon called the 'Meta' Family. The only reason they were even friends was because Maine had suffered a throat injury and became mute, and Simon was the only seventh grader who knew complete sign language, save Elliot and Leonard Church, but Maine seemed to like Simon the best.**

**And Simon had it out for David, and all of Maine's former friends.**

**He looked down the rest of the schedule.**

**American Government, English Honors, Gym, Study Hall, Lunch, Chemistry, Trigonometry, another study hall, and his Art class at the very end. **

**Many shared with his friends, mainly Alex, Willis… Maine, Caroline, and Connie. Though he did notice that he had classes with other friends, such as Trig, English, and Art with Church, Simmons, Caboose, and Grif, though how Grif even passed ninth and tenth grade was a mystery to them all, though the rumor was that Simmons had a soft spot for the Hawaiian. And Chem with Church, Donut, Doc, Simmons, and Allison.**

**At least he wouldn't be in any classes with Elliot, he had made sure of it.**

**He frowned, forcing the thoughts from his mind. The last thing he needed was to start his junior year grieving over his broken relationship with his ex-boyfriend.**

**Nor even trying to tell his friends what happened between them, what Elliot did to him, how he hurt him. **

** "****Hey Dave?" Connie asked, looking up from comparing hers and Alexa's, her current girlfriend. "Where's Elliot? Arent you curious if you have any classes together?"**

** "****No." he stated plainly, letting his shoulders drop. **

** "****What? Why not?" Caroline asked. "I thought you and him were madly in love." They're eyes all tuned towards the three of them. David debated internally whether or not to tell the. He weighed the choices in his head. If he stayed shut, Connie would just go to ask Elliot what had gone down, or worse, keep pestering him to tell her. Or he could just tell them now and face the mass amount of questions and shouting he knew might come….**

**Ah what the hell?**

** "****We broke up, plain and simple." David commented, shrugging it off as if it were absolutly nothing. Connie's jaw fell open, and Caroline raised a curious eyebrow, and as predicted, several others started to shout questions. "Why it matters, I have no clue."**

** "****When? When did this happen?" Caroline asked.**

** "****Over summer break, why?"**

** "****Why? You were perfect for eachother, you made each other happy, you always were smiling, you laughed more, you were happier." Connie replied, emphasising each point.**

** "****So… I need to have a boyfriend for me to be happy?" he asked, pulling that one point out of the whole speech. **

** "****No, no thats not what I meant…" Connie tried to defend herself. David just dismissed her, piling his belongings into his bag, and leaving the library without a second thought. **

**Now David expected a lot of things to happen. Connie=e might follow him, he might find someone even more annoying, like Donut, who was even worse when it came to breakups.**

**He had not expected to run into one of the most handsome guys he had ever run into.**

**"****Oh sorry, my fault entirely." he said, a smile creeping onto the man's face. David looked up at his face. It was squared, but had enough of a curve to not look brawlic, he had light grey eyes, or eye, as one of them was blurred, almost as if blinded, and had a small slightly pinkish scar running over the eyebrow, eye, and just below it. His brown straight hair was styled into a faint point, like a mini faux hawk. "Names Calvin. Calvin York."**

**"****David, David Kearney." David said, a little flabbergasted. The man was ****_hot_****, and looked like he had the 'Mr. Right' personality to go with it, but also hinted off a deep sadness from long ago, buried inside him. "I… I got to, you know,...go, first period and all."**

**"****Yeah, don't want to be late, first day and all." Calvin added, pointing to the main stairwell,. "That way to the office, right?"**

**David was too stunned by the man's smile and stare that he failed to notice that the kid didn't know his way around, in which he normally would assume he was new, or a freshman, or he was like Caboose, but instead of his logical mind processing that, he neglected it, and watched as the kid walked away, waving a small goodbye.**

**"****...Bye…" David waved back, a dopey smile on his face. **

**And in all of thirty seconds, he had forgotten all about Elliot.**


	3. Los Mecánico Magico

******David may have wanted silence till first period, but fate must have really been against him that day. He had walked rather briskly away from where he had bumped into Calvin, and found himself in the two floored, glass roofed, open atrium that was the school's main lobby. The room was circular, with a semicircular balcony spanning the wall opposite the massive glass window that was the front wall. The walls were painted in the school colors, a weird, yet strange, mix of the colors Grey, Blue, and Red, the school team's symbol in tile on the floor, a red, blue, and grey arrowhead pointed inward, forming the symbol for war, the team name under it in a circle:**

** "********Valhalla High School, home of the Freelancers."**

******Personally, David found it ridiculous. **

******Back to Fate.**

******David had hoped he could just get to his French class, pick a seat in the middle, as he always did, knowing his friends sat in the back, where they couldn't bother him, and try to live out the year. Things… don't always work out the way he thinks it should. As he was about to climb a staircase that led to the second floor promenade, he cringed as the front doors swung open, and out came the most horrid thing imaginable at this moment.**

** "********Isn't it wonderful! Doc, tell me you think it's wonderful. I absolutely do." he heard a certain blonde say, no, scream out, hints of a feminine quality in it's tone, yet clearly the voice of a man...so doctors claimed.**

** "********Frank, my name is Frank, not Doc." a brunette man said behind him, carrying a stack of books, a backpack, and fixing his glasses that were clearly not fitted right for the man's face. The blonde turned to the brunette.**

** "********I thought you wanted to be a doctor." the blonde said, crossing his arms over his pink, no, ****__****lightish red********, tee shirt, blue eyes staring down the other. The brunette, whom everyone called Doc, due to his entire family being some form of a doctor, and the kid did want to go to Med school, merely stared back at his friend, brown eyes staring into the blondes icy blue ones.**

** "********I do, but why you call me Doc still goes beyond me." Doc said, breaking the stare and walking beside the blonde to the center of the room.**

** "********And I keep telling you, it's because Caboose,... along with many of us…, can't pronounce your last name, and we both have the name Frank, so we go by our last names, which, as I stated shortly before, yours is impossible to say."**

** "********What's so hard with saying DuFresne?" Aren't you taking French?" Doc questioned.**

******The other sighed. **

** "********Yeah, but when did I say I was good at it. I personally think Spanish is much better ,which is why I take both."**

** "********Sí, y que está absolutamente horrible en eso, por favor, deje de hacerlo." a spanish kid walked past, his backpack a very colorful gift from his family in Mexico, a wrench in the pocket.**

** "********Hola Lopez! ¿Cómo fue tu lápiz?" Donut asked, waving at the spaniard.**

******Lopez looked insanely annoyed at Donut, and Doc thought that just for a second, he saw smoke coming from Lopez's nose.**

** " ********¿Eres estúpido?! Puede que ni siquiera decir lo más fácil de cualquier palabra de español, y mucho menos un par de ellos juntos, imbécil?" Lopez screamed.**

** "********Yes Lopez, the lawn looks very pretty this time of year." Donut smiled.**

** "********Vete por favor, acaba de salir, así que nunca hay que verlo de nuevo. Tal vez incluso Marte, o el sol." Lopez said, face palming. He turned, and left without another word. **

** "********Adios amor!" Donut shouted. **

** "********Amigo" Doc corrected.**

******Lopez flipped him the bird.**

**"********"Vete a la mierda!" Lopez shouted, entering a classroom.**

******Donut smiled. **

**"********We are such great friends."**

******Doc sighed. "Donut, why do I get the feeling otherwise?"**

** "********Because your not intuned with the universe, or whatever."**

******David tried to creep up the stairs, hoping Donut would not see him.**

******But fate just hated him apparently. He tripped, over a skateboard that someone had left on the stairs. David toppled down the stairs, landing on his back, half the school staring at him, some laughing, others indifferently, and Donut…**

** "********Hiya Dave, I see you're falling pretty hard to see me." Donut called, chuckling a little bit.**

** "********Hi Donut." David replied in his monotone voice.**

** "********Hello David." Doc added in, fixing his glasses yet again. "How was your summer?"**

** "********Nothing but work and very little play." David replied, standing up and brushing off the non-existent dust on his sleeves. Doc frowned.**

**"********I'm sorry to hear about you and Elliot." Doc stated, his voice saddened. Doc had been one of those to have 'noticed' David's sudden happiness spike when he and Elliot were dating. "But I'm sure that whatever reasons you had for doing what you did, were the right ones"**

**"********I just couldn't stand his shit anymore." David murmured. "It was just too much. He…I don't want to talk about it." David interrupted himself. He wanted to get over him, but it was like somehow, he couldn't let go. Those damn memories of them, of Elliot laughing, and crying, and their time together…. It gave him a migraine.**

**"********Enough about me. How was that paid internship you had?" **

**"********It was good. Long hours, but at least I got overtime."**

******David blinked in surprise.**

**"********You got paid ****__****overtime********?" David asked. **

******Doc frowned again. "You don't?"**

**"********No, no I don't." David replied, rather upset.**

**"********No more sad things please. Happy thoughts!" Donut plunged into the conversation. David scowled.**

**"********Donut."**

**"********Yes Mr. Grumpy Guy?"**

**"********Do you want a repeat of what happened at the paintball arena?" David questioned.**

**"********You mean where you shot me and Lopez, knocking me out for hours, and sending Lopez to the hospital?"**

**"********Yes, that's the time."**

**"********No?"**

**"********Good, now stay out of the conversation."**

******Donut sulked. "You could ask nicely."**

**"********I could, but then I'd have to talk more than I already have to. I figured a nice reminder was a better incentive."**

**"********Whatever. Come on Doc, we have English to learn!" **

******And with that, the pink shirted, feminine man dragged his friend away down a hall, finally vanishing from David's sight.**

**"********Why am I friends with them?" **

** "********Yo no se." a familiar spanish voice answered. David turned to face Lopez, who was filling a water bottle at the fountain. "Tal vez tu solo que triste y solitario."**

******David scowled. "Al menos yo hablo Inglés. Durante todo este tiempo a nuestro alrededor y usted todavía no lo habla?"**

******Lopez shrugged, a sarcastic smile stretching across his face.**

** "********Tal vez sea para evitar conversaciones como ésta, que estamos teniendo, en estos momentos."**

** "********Oh don't get smart. Don't you have a radio to fix in shop?"**

** "********Si."**

** "********Then go fix it."**

** "********Bueno, yo lo arreglaré de aquí, porque estoy magia. Yo soy un mecánico mágico."**

******David stormed off.**


	4. Continental Timezones

**Calvin waited impatiently outside the office. He was supposed to meet this guy, named Counselor James, for a session, to talk on how things were with him, what was happening in his life, and basically making him feel like he'd been arrested.**

**And as he'd stated many times before, he did not need therapy.**

**His head turned as the door opened, and a tall, african american man, with close cropped black hair, harshly kind and honest brown eyes looked down at him, a look of pity and interest on his face. Calvin felt like he was going to be sick.**

** "****Good morning Mister York, please come in, have a seat." he smiled. Calvin, not wanting to see the man angry, obliged, and took as esat in one of the plush maroon seats in front of a large dark oakwood desk, with personal objects and photos placed neatly around the desk.**

**For a brief moment, the two just stared at each other in earnest, neither one of them speaking. Finally, the Counsellor decided to end the awkward silence and leaned over his desk, staring into Calvin's grey eyes with his dark brown ones. Calvin felt like he was looking into his very soul.**

** "****Can you please not do that?" Calvin asked, his voice sounding a bit terrified. The man leaned back, and crossed his arms.**

** "****No that that is over with, we can stop wasting time." he spoke with a smooth tone, one that seemed to roll over you. It did not help Calvin trust the guy. "Tell me, how are you liking it here? Would you find that moving away from your last home to be satisfying or the opposite?"**

** "****Right to the point then." Calvin replied, "is there a middle option?"**

** "****What do you mean?"**

** "****First, I hate the fact that I have to sit here and be expected to open up and spill everything about myself to some shrink you, like all the others, said they could find the cause of my 'underlying trust issues', and frankly, I am sick of it all." Calvin answered with a small laugh, "And second, this is my sixth time moving to a new place, and I'm pretty sure it's made me one of the only teenagers whose lived in every time zone in the continental United States. So what do you think my answer is?"**

** "****I'll just put down 'other'." he replied. "Tell me, what is your opinion of this move? What has it made you feel?"**

** "****Great, another one." Calvin sassed. "You know you're not the first person to ask that, right? I have had eight different therapists and counsellors, some even sincere in trying to help, but there is nothing to help. I'm. Not. Broken."**

** "****No one said you were broken Calvin, they just feel that it might be a safe path to have you talk to someone about whatever is going on."**

** "****Shut up, just shut up, please, you have no idea of what you're really saying, do you?" Calvin growled, "I grew up with people who were there 'for me to talk to about things', and here's how they all went, although I'm sure you already learned all about me in some debrief you and my teachers got when they learned I was going to come here. The first one was to help me get over my parents death, and help transition into my life with my godparents. The second and third were trying to help me get over my godmothers death, the fourth was to help me get over all the abuse from my godfather, though frankly, I do not remember what the full extent was and nobody will tell me, the fifth was to help when I landed myself in the psych ward for three days under suicide watch, the sixth was to help me get over trust issues, and the seventh was when I almost depressingly relapsed into old habits, and the eighth refused to see me after the first session, and here I am, once again, in the ninth person on the endless totem pole that is my life."**

**The counsellor stared wide eyed at the teenager in front of him. Calvin's chest was heaving from lack of oxygen, and his face was red.**

** "****I think that is a good first session, I will see you at the end of the week to see how your life here is going." the counsellor said, smiling and shaking Calvin's hand. "Nice to meet you Calvin."**

**Calvin slugged his bag over his shoulder, and sulked out the door.**

** "****Yeah, whatever."**

**He exited the main office, looking down at his schedule. French first, and his cousin just so happened to teach it. Whatever, he'd deal with them soon enough. Right now, he had a day to survive, and he hoped to God that his mask would hold out.**

** "****What did you learn Counsellor?" a man's smooth voice, with a small hint of a southern accent, possibly Texan, asked."**

** "****Not much, though he did open up rather easily." **

** "****Excellent. You will continue to see him, and report your findings to me and Mr. Wolfe, understood."**

** "****Yes sir."**

** "****Good. Dismissed." the Texan ended.**

** "****_Principal Church, you are requested in the auditorium, the ninth graders are all here._****"****he heard over the intercom. He smiled. He loved the first day speech.**

** "****Coming Allison."**


	5. The Linebacker? Wide Receiver

Chapter Five

Caroline sat bored out of her mind in her Spanish class. She had had a rough morning already, and she knew her day would only just get worse.

First, her truck broke down, meaning she had to walk to school.

Second, in her anger over her truck, she realized she'd walked the mile to school without her bag, had to walk home, and then walk back, and by then, her brother Leonard had already made it to school, since his friend Tucker, had drove him.

Third, Tucker said if she wanted, she could have rode with them, then proceeded to hit on her, causing Caroline to _hit on him_, leaving Tucker to limp off to the nurse.

Fourth, she'd found out that David and Elliot had broken up, after all her's, Connie's and Alexa's attempts at getting them together.

Fifth, she had run into _Her,_ that asshole Tex, who went by that name because her mother's name was Allison as well. And the thing that made it all worse was that Tex was _technically _her sister. (Allison and her father: Principal Church, had Caroline first, then adopted Leonard, then then proceeded to have another, which they named Allison, because Tex reminded their dad so much of their mom). Of course, then an argument occurred, and to top it all off:

Sixth, she was late for Homeroom, and kept late afterward, which made her late to Spanish class, where she currently sat next to Agent Double-O Pink-shirt, and _El Mecánico Magia_, and listen to them fight back and forth, though Donut seemed to think it was a 'pleasant conversation and catch-up between two good friends', which then ushered a rather insidious reply from Lopez, who basically told him to die in a hole,... minus a couple hundred explicits.

Which if by routine, Donut would comment by saying:

"Want to explore that hole with me Lopez?"

Caroline wanted to strangle them both.

"Will you both _shut the fuck UP!_" she shouted, her face red and a vein popping out on her neck. The two guys looked nervously at her. David scared them majorly, but Caroline, just outright terrified them.

"Yes ma'am!" they shouted, Lopez in spanish, and Donut in his high pitched voice.

"Thank you!" she fell back into her seat, thankful for some quiet, till no later than thirty seconds did first bell ring and class begin.

"Great" she muttered. "Welcome to hell."

"Excuse me _Carolina_, what was that?" her spanish teacher asked, using her spanish name.

"Bienvenido al infierno!"

Spanish class was just as she had said, Hell. Though it was only the first day, she hated it already. Why her parents made her take it eluded her, as they constantly refused her answers. She didn't see why, it was just spanish class, and if they wanted her to be bilingual, then why not just say so?

At least she didn't have to deal with Donut till lunchtime… who the hell is that?

She stared straight in front of her, where about thirty feet down the hall stood a guy, with adorable brown hair, grey eyes, and a happy-go-lucky smile on his face.

She felt a person come up on her left, then her right. She turned, seeing it was just Connie and her girlfriend Alexa.

"What are you looking at?" Alexa nonchalantly asked, checking her nails, rather than actually looking at Caroline's target. Connie punched her, getting her attention on the subject. "Oww! What?"

"Would you pay attention for just a damn sec…"

"Who is that?" Caroline interrupted Connie mid sentence, pointing at the guy down hall.

Connie squinted. "Who the blonde guy, or the or the red haired guy. Well the blonde's Alex, and the ginger is Simm-"

"Not them! The brown haired one in the yellow t-shirt and tan pants. the _Hot _one?" Caroline asked, shaking Connie.

"Now that's rude. Alex and Simmons are cute, in their own way." Connie laughed.

Caroline groaned, sounding highly annoyed. Connie smiled.

"I know, I know, I'm just messing with you. Relax. That's the new kid, the one Alex mentioned this morning."

Alexa huffed. "Guess now we know it's a guy."

"Relax, maybe he's like Donut, and will let you give him weird makeovers." Connie mocked.

"I wouldn't have to torture Donut if you let me do it to you."

"No, uh-uh, not letting you anywhere near my hair or face."

Alexa leaned and cut her off with a small kiss.

"Except when that happens…" Connie smiled sheepishly.

"Will you two knock it off! I'm in a crisis here!" caroline yelled at them. A couple students looked weirdly at her, but her glare sent them running.

"Oh my, Connie, did you hear that?! Caroline is in a _crisis_!"

Calvin smiled.

He'd come from French class, which had left him with both joy and terror.

First, he was going to kill his cousin, and here's why:

As soon as class began, he scanned the room. He saw a couple of guys laughing in the back: a tall and big looking guy, who sat next to a balck haired and pale kid, who replied everything the linebacker signed to him.

The pale kid creeped him out.

Next was a tall blonde guy who looked like a greek god statue come to life, he looked _that_ perfect. Then there was a tall, brown haired kid with a real handlebar mustache, cracking what looked to be extremely obnoxious and unfunny knock-knock jokes.

He felt bad for the rest of them.

He looked again and saw that kid from earlier,... David, sitting all alone in the middle of the room. Calvin wondered why, looking confused for a moment, as why he was sitting there, when it was clear that the guys in back were his friends.

David had yet to notice he was there.

Till the worst possible thing happened.

"Okay class, before class starts, I want to introduce the new kid, as to not take away anytime from class." his cousin said, standing from his desk.

Suddenly _every _eye was on him, and all he could do was awkwardly wave and say a small meek 'Hi'.

"This Calvin York, the new kid, so make him feel welcome alright?" Brandon asked. "Cousin, would you like to say something?"

Some students muttered a few words when Brandon said cousin, probably thinking there was a teachers pet in class. Brandon's glare shut them up.

Weird, he was so much different here than at home. What happened to the crepe-making older brother type attitude from this morning?

"Do I have to?" he whined. Brandon scowled.

"Oui." he said, and Calvin sighed.

"I'm Calvin, I just moved here, the teacher is my cousin, and apparently my backyard is the 'right size for a party', ain't that right _cousin_?" he thrust the spotlight back onto the teacher. His gaze met Brandon's.

That's right, two can play at this game.

"Yeah, sure, but don't get too carried away." Brandon replied.

"Okay, will do." Calvin said sitting in an empty seat...right next to David, who was blushing.

"Okay, now that that little detour is over, we can now get back to our lives." Brandon stated, standing in the front of the students. He began preaching…. ahem teaching… about the French language, why it was important, and all the fun they were going to have.

Calvin didn't hear a word of it.

"Why are you sitting alone?" he asked David, who was absentmindedly doodling on his desk. From the look of the desks, it seemed that none of the teachers really cared what their students did, just as long as they passed classes.

"David looked up at him, confused as whether or not Calvin was talking to him.

"Oh, just better this way, you wouldn't really understand…" he glanced back at the group of guys at the back, pretending to pay attention.

Calvin glanced as well, and smiled widely.

"I do, more than you know."

"I don't like that one with the black hair. He creeps me out, and always looks like he wants to kill me. The only reason I have to deal with him is because Maine's…"

"Mute?" Calvin asked, and David nodded. "So why is he taking a…?"

"His mom is French Canadian, so he's learning French to write her, as well as taking the course on French Sign Language." David explained. Calvin nodded in understanding.

"Who are they? Your friends, I mean they have to be your friends since you are obviously and purposefully sitting in the middle, away from them, but not in the front like you're ignoring them."

"The big one…"

"The linebacker."

"He's actually the school's best wide receiver, and his name's Maine…" David looked at Calvin's confused face. "Don't ask, creative parenting. The brown haired one with the handlebar, which is _completely_ real, is Reginald, he moved from London in the fifth grade, and loves to tell incredibly horrible knock-knock jokes, and act like a relative James Bond. He's even got the name thing down."

"The names Hullum, Reginald Hullum." Reginald cut in.

"York, Calvin...um...York." he said, hesitantly shaking the brit's hand. reginald sunk back towards his seat, Brandon not even noticing that the guy had moved up three rows and and spoke quite loudly when he introduced himself.

"Is he always like that?" Calvin asked. David shook his head no. :Okay…"

"Anyway, the blonde is Alex. He has a twin sister named Alexa, who is a complete bitch, but has a weirdly excellent punk style. Alex is dating Theodore, who is this really shy and meek guy, who only opens around Alex, and Alexa is dating my friend Connie."

"And the creepy black-haired death-glarer?"

"That would be Simon."

And after that was nothing but his cousin preaching, and at his point, he could no longer call it teaching, so he avoided correcting himself, he exited the classroom with a headache and a promise to sit with David and his large group of friends at lunch, five periods from now.

That's if he could survive the frustration, murderous rage, and hair tearing out of having to find all his classes.

But he found himself smiling.

Because down the hall was one of the prettiest, albeit scariest, girl he'd seen in his life.

And she was staring right at him, face as red as her hair.

And he couldn't help but to smile even wider.


End file.
